NHL 100

Headlines

Brind'Amour finally finishes first in faceoffs

by
John McGourty
/ NHL.com

Faceoff magicians

Rod Brind'Amour reigns as the NHL's faceoff champ heading into 2009-10. Here are the other top 10 finishers this past season:

2. Kris Draper, Red Wings, 603/1000, 60.3 percent -- When he was coaching the Red Wings, Scotty Bowman took a night to watch a minor-league game and was amazed when Kris Draper won every faceoff. Bowman promoted him. That was 1993 and Draper has been among the top NHL faceoff men since. Draper gets even better when the faceoff is in the defensive zone. He doesn't look very big, but Draper's all muscle with great core-body strength, thick forearms and strong hands and wrists.

3. Radek Bonk, Predators, 450/751, 59.9 percent -- Bonk came to North America at age 17 and was rookie of the year in the now-defunct IHL. He had 10 good seasons with Ottawa, then two seasons with Montreal and two with Nashville. Bonk led the NHL by winning 61.9 percent of his faceoffs on the road.

4. Manny Malhotra, Blue Jackets, 801/1380, 58 percent -- The NHL's No. 4 faceoff man last season has lost his job to the No. 6 faceoff man, Antoine Vermette. Malhotra is unsigned at this moment. Picked seventh in the 1998 Entry Draft, Malhotra has been a third-line checking center for most of his career. Malhotra had career highs last season, his ninth in the NHL, with 24 assists and 35 points while often playing on Rick Nash's line.

5. David Steckel, Capitals, 513/886, 57.9 percent -- There has been an argument here at NHL.com all summer whether the U.S. Olympic team made a mistake in not inviting the NHL's No. 5 faceoff man to its evaluation camp. In 2008, Steckel became the only NHL rookie to finish in the top 10 in this decade. At 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds, Steckel's size is second only to his dedication and intensity. A top penalty killer, Steckel won 153 of 283 shorthanded faceoffs.

6. Antoine Vermette, Blue Jackets/Senators, 642/1112, 57.7 percent -- Vermette should be the NHL player most excited about the upcoming season. He averaged 21 goals a season during his second, third and fourth NHL seasons and helped Ottawa to the Stanley Cup Final in 2007. For the first time in his career, Vermette will center an NHL team's first line, and he'll have a goal-scoring champion Rick Nash on his left wing.
7. Jarret Stoll, Kings, 599/1047, 57.2 percent -- "Mr. Consistency," Stoll won 57.3 percent of his home faceoffs and 57.1 percent on the road, ranking fifth in the NHL in the latter category. Stoll and former Edmonton Oilers teammate Shawn Horcoff, who led several faceoff categories last season, received intensive faceoff schooling for several years from former Oilers assistant coach Billy Moores and it paid off.
8. Joe Pavelski, Sharks, 717/1274, 56.3 percent -- "Mr. Trending Upward," Pavelski, 25, makes his first appearance in the top 10 after finishing out of the top 90 in his first two NHL seasons. Pavelski has been an improved player in each of his three seasons. He is one of the most intense young players in the League and a fast skater who combines a scholar's knowledge beyond his years. He's got a durable, stocky body, strong arms and quick movement.

9. Pavel Datsyuk, Red Wings, 636/1135, 56 percent -- What doesn't this guy do well? That the NHL's best all-round player is also good at faceoffs is no surprise. That he progressed from a mediocre faceoff man in his first two years to a member of the top 10 the past three seasons is a tribute to his dedication and the Red Wings' emphasis on winning faceoffs. Detroit led the NHL in faceoffs last season, thanks in great measure to the work of Draper and Datsyuk.

10. Joe Thornton, Sharks, 718/1295, 55.4 percent -- There are aspects of Thornton's game that are awesome, his passing skills primarily, and aspects that are frustrating. Thornton makes it into the top 10 for the first time in his 10-year career. But this was the sixth season in which he won more faceoffs than he lost and his best since he won 56.3 percent with Boston in 2004. First-year coach Todd McLellan got Thornton to give his best performance in the faceoff circle in his four seasons in San Jose.

You could call Brind'Amour the Alydar or Tom Lehman of the NHL's faceoff category. Like Alydar, who finished second to Affirmed in all three Triple Crown races in 1978, or Lehman, who led the U.S. Open after 54 holes in 1995, 1996 and 1997 but never won, Brind'Amour finished second in faceoff victory percentage three times behind seven-time champion Yanic Perreault earlier in this decade.

Brind'Amour, 39, also finished third, fifth and 12th in years that Perreault won. He finished fifth behind Scott Nichol in 2008 and 12th behind Joe Nieuwendyk in 1999. He was 21st in 1998, when Eric Lindros won and the NHL first began keeping faceoff statistics.

Brind'Amour has long been one of the NHL's best faceoff performers and that was never more evident than last season. He led the NHL with 664 even-strength faceoff victories and by winning 63.2 percent of faceoffs at home. He was second in the NHL in winning 494 home faceoffs, 414 road faceoffs and 908 faceoffs of all kinds.

Brind'Amour is the complete package when it comes to winning faceoffs. He's strong in his torso, his arms, thick hands and wrists. He has a low center of gravity and lowers further for faceoffs, bringing his powerful legs into play, helping him maintain position when bodies collide after the drop. He's also very fast with his stick due to great hand-eye coordination. And, he knows a million tricks.

Brind'Amour entered the NHL in 1988 with the St. Louis Blues and he has gained a world of experience playing with great faceoff men like Tony Hrkac in St. Louis, Keith Acton and Lindros in Philadelphia and Ron Francis in Carolina.

"The thing I remember about when Rod broke in with us in St. Louis in 1988 was how strong he was," said former Blues teammate Tony McKegney, the NHL's Hockey Is For Everyone ambassador. "He spent the previous year while he was at Michigan State working out with the football team. This was back when NHL teams didn't have individual weight-lifting programs. But I had always lifted weights so Rod and I became close.

"We had excellent centers on that team; Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter, Cliff Ronning, Peter Zezel, Tony Hrkac and Rick Meagher, but I don't remember Rod working with them on faceoffs. He was already very good at that when he got to the NHL. He was very good at using his body on faceoffs because he was so strong."

In a surprising revelation a few years back, Brind'Amour told NHL.com that he never practices faceoffs because he knows all the NHL linesmen's tendencies and his coaches can't duplicate that, so it would only throw him off his game.

That familiarity drove Shawn Horcoff and the Edmonton Oilers crazy during the 2006 Stanley Cup Final. Horcoff and his coach, Craig MacTavish, complained Brind'Amour was "cheating" after Brind'Amour won nearly 80 percent of his faceoffs against Horcoff. They said he stands at an angle, rather than the perpendicular stance the rules call for. They said he also lifts his stick after putting it down in accordance with the rule book.

They weren't wrong, but Brind'Amour is not alone in making quick moves after the linesmen get the players set for a faceoff. There's a split second there before the drop, and Brind'Amour has the timing down cold.

San Jose's Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton finished eighth and 10th, respectively. The Sharks may be even better this season as Thornton and Pavelski will be joined by free-agent Scott Nichol, who led the NHL in 2007-08, and the return to health of faceoff specialist Torrey Mitchell, who missed last season with a leg injury. Marcel Goc, who won 58 percent of over 500 faceoffs, was not re-signed.